Quote Originally Posted by impulse View Post
I think you were right. It will be better to remember these words with articles.
A minor note: they are not articles, but just indicative pronouns. We do not have articles (a/the) in Russian.

Эта помощь -> This one is right
Эта смерть
Эта любовь
Эта речь
Эта память
Эта помочь -> It should be "помощь" (see above). There is no noun like "помочь". There is a verb "помочь - to help" (stress on second О) and a noun "помощь - help" (stress on first О).

Эта жзинь -> жизнь
BTW, to simplify your task:
1. All nouns derived from verbs with the suffix -тель meaning "a person or a device which performs the action" are masculine.

There are some cases when a noun ending in -тель is feminine. But actually they do not comply the condition above: they do not mean "someone or something performing an action". They are:

артель (artel) - loan word, no suffix "тель": эта артель,
канитель (gold or silver thread), often used figuraively (long-drawn-out proceedings) - loan word, no suffix "тель": эта канитель,
обитель (archaic word: dwelling-place, abode, cloister) - there is suffix "-тель", but it does not mean an actor: эта обитель.

Maybe some others.

However, all those words are quite rare.

2. All the nouns derived from adjectives with the suffix -ость (-есть after ж, ш, ч, щ) meaning "a quality name" are feminine.
Moreover, even the nouns without that suffix which end in -сть are mainly feminine (эта власть, эта масть, эта пасть, эта честь, эта весть, эта кисть, эта кость, эта грусть etc.).

Again, there are a few cases when a noun in -сть is masculine, but they do not have -ость/-есть as a suffix, and they are masculine because they refer to male persons:
тесть (father-in-law),
гость (guest).

Maybe some others, I am not sure.

I believe those "rules" will help you, since we have a great number of words in "-тель" or in "-ость/-есть".